You've come to the right conclusion. I haven't had an Intel PC since the P4 days and my gaming rigs have always played the best games without breaking a sweat.
I do want to mention that you don't NEED an SSD. It's nice and loads stuff fast, but it's not a must. a 7200rpm or faster Western Digital Black drive costs considerably less and does the job just fine. If you absolutely must load Photoshop in 3 seconds instead of 15 seconds than the SSD is great, but I wouldn't rule out a standard drive, especially if you want lots of space.
I have a fast 512GB SSD and I love it, but it cost the same as 4TB drives. I have a few standard drive to store data and have even installed some of my larger games on to avoid filling up my SSD.
So if money is a concern don't think you have to spend a good portion of it on an SSD. I'd put that money to RAM or CPU or Video and figure I can always install an SSD later as their prices come down or go on sale.
